"Knock, knock."

A tiny, timid voice interrupted Kiyotaka as he set a picture frame down on his shiny new desk. He tensed.

"...Fujisaki-chan. ...Do you like the view?"

He gestured at the floor-to-ceiling window behind him. It was certainly impressive. One could see the entire business district. Fujisaki spared it only a glance, not answering his question.

"I'm really worried about you, you know."

"You've said as much. Several times. You worry too much."

Kiyotaka didn't want to have this conversation again. He returned to what he had been doing— making the office his own and removing any lingering traces of Ichijou. He didn't look Chihiro in the eye, and he moved about in a hasty and impractical manner meant to make him look more busy than he was. He didn't have a lot of personal belongings, and most of his work materials existed in the form of digital data. The office was going to be depressingly and noticeably empty. It was a strange thing to worry about.

Chihiro studied him, for a moment, and then she took a few comfortable steps forward and sat down in the chair in front of the desk. Kiyotaka's work chair behind the desk, which had come with the office, was a leather swiveling one. The second chair was meant for visitors. She flattened out the pleats in her skirt (she always insisted on wearing ones that didn't hug her frame) and waited.

Kiyotaka worked for another minute before he sighed, threw down his stack of books, and plopped into his new seat.

"What do you want from me, Fujisaki-chan? Have I upset you in some way?"

"You don't have to sound so mad..."

"I'm not—" He paused to clear his throat. "I'm not mad. I'm just... I'm just tired."

Kiyotaka was only partly lying.

The last week had been a swirling nightmare of busyness. He'd gone ring-shopping with Sonia, and there was now a band around the appropriate finger that was far too gaudy for his own tastes. His parents had forced him to have a celebratory dinner with them that night, where they had spent half of the event giving him backhanded compliments. "I was beginning to think that you'd never find anybody, but you've gone and landed yourself a fine woman!" Things of that nature. It seemed that his parents just couldn't stand being genuinely nice to him.

That exchange, on top of the stress of getting settled into his new role and being shown the ropes while helping to train the person who would replace him, had gotten him thinking— had he done something to deserve this misery? Surely he must have offended someone rather terribly to be dealt this hand. Shortly after having that thought, his mind had been plagued with a troubling mantra: Everyone would be better off with somebody better than you. You're a bother. That's why you don't have any friends. You can't do anything right.

The change in his mental stability had deprived him of sleep and left him irritable and snappy. Chihiro hadn't been the first person to point it out to him. He'd been getting a lot done at work and hadn't been zoning out the way he had shortly after meeting Mondo for the first time, but he wasn't sure that this Kiyotaka was any better. This particular Kiyotaka was, for lack of a better word, grouchy.

Chihiro looked back over her own shoulder to confirm that she had closed the door behind her, and then she leaned forward to rest her elbows on the desk. Kiyotaka imitated her stance. The leather underneath him made a noise that he didn't like.

"How... How is the new job treating you? I-I know it's supposed to be a surprise, but I'm sure you've heard about the party they're planning at the bar."

Kiyotaka nodded. He had heard about that party, because his coworkers were a bunch of gossips who couldn't keep anything to themselves and never bothered to look over their shoulders when they talked amongst themselves. It was a cruel irony that they planned to have it at the very same sports bar that Kiyotaka knew all too well— the one where Mondo had saved his life.

He had been trying not to think about the man, but every time he heard that bar mentioned, Mondo swam back into his thoughts. He hadn't been ignoring Mondo, but their relationship had changed. Kiyotaka had run into him once in the grocery store and again on the sidewalk, and both times, Mondo had given him a pained smile and hurried elsewhere. Kiyotaka couldn't blame the man for having that reaction— his own expression must have betrayed his discomfort in seeing Mondo's face, and he hadn't exactly made any effort to call him or text him even though he had his phone number.

Kiyotaka didn't have time to be thinking about those things. He shook his head to rid it of those traitorous thoughts.

"The job is... difficult, but that's to be expected for the kind of salary it comes with. My parents are proud of me. And I've heard about the party. I haven't been to that bar in quite some time."

"Oh, yeah..." Chihiro realized aloud, "isn't that the one where you met Oowada-kun?"

Kiyotaka pursed his lips.

"...Is he still helping you train?"

"He is! I'm up to sixty pounds, and I can run a half-mile. Why do you ask?"

"No reason."

He awkwardly looked away. Chihiro tilted her head and then changed the subject to something entirely different.

"I was here when your father stopped by, you know."

"...You were?"

"I don't think I like him very much. He was talking about you, and your promotion and the engagement, but he kept finding ways to make it about him. And he bought you an orange tie... Even I know that you hate that color. You've never worn anything orange."

Kiyotaka scoffed.

"It's not that I hate orange. It just looks awful on me. Makes me look washed-out. ...A-And yeah, my father... he does that. My mother, too. I already mentioned it, didn't I?"

"You did." Chihiro smiled sadly. "Did you even want this promotion?"

Kiyotaka didn't bother to insist that he had. Chihiro already knew that he wasn't particularly fond of this field, and she had noticed his unusual reaction to the announcement. He didn't want to insult her intelligence.

"I'd have to be insane to turn it down, wouldn't I? I mean, I get two months of paid vacation time."

"But you probably won't take a vacation."

"Th-That's not true! I-I have my... my honeymoon!" 

She clearly didn't believe him. And she wasn't wrong— Kiyotaka had only ever taken vacation time or the day off when it was required of him for legal reasons, and he usually spent the time away secretly getting a head start on future projects. He didn't really know how to shut himself off.

"...Just tell me this, Fujisaki-chan," he mumbled. "Why do you bother with me? Why can't you just leave me be?"

Chihiro's eyes widened slightly. She clasped her little hands together under her chin and began to wring them nervously.

"A-Am I... annoying you?"

"No! That's not what I meant. I just... don't see what could possibly be so interesting about talking to me and taking me to lunch."

Chihiro giggled at his answer. Kiyotaka didn't know what she found so funny.

"I just worry about you. I think we're kind of similar."

"...Similar, how?"

Kiyotaka stared the girl down. For a moment, he was afraid that she wouldn't answer. She hid her mouth behind her hands and looked down at the carpet before she spoke next.

"Well... when you first started working here, I really looked up to you. You always worked so hard, and you always smiled and helped everybody else. You kept everyone focused and organized. But... I started noticing the cracks in your facade. And I realized that something was wrong.

"Wh-When I noticed that your demeanor had changed, I decided to ask you to lunch, and then you admitted it— that you don't even like this job. That you don't even want to be here and would rather be a teacher. You were... living a lie that had gotten out of hand. ...I know what that's like."

Kiyotaka frowned in his surprise and raised an eyebrow.

"You... do?"

Chihiro nodded.

"Mm-hm. Oowada-kun knows about it, and he's helping me with that, but... It's been so long since I started lying that it's hard for me to even tell what's true anymore. And I'm afraid sometimes that if I tell the truth, everybody will hate me."

Kiyotaka smiled a strange, thin smile at that. Her words had struck a chord. He knew exactly how she felt. He and Chihiro were, in fact, quite similar.

"...I don't like this place, but I have to do what's right for my family," he offered lamely. Chihiro shook her head.

"Have they ever done what's right for you? I think that maybe you're the only one who actually cares."

"You might be right, but... They're the only family I have."

Kiyotaka didn't intend to elaborate. He used his thumb and index finger to squeeze at the place where the bridge of his nose met the middle of his brow. He felt a migraine forming there, and he hadn't even started working yet. Thankfully he'd remembered to bring some painkillers for this problem as well as the constant ache in his lower back.

"I have something for you." Chihiro's tone was cheerful as she said that. She started fishing through her satchel, and then she produced a very nice hardcover book, one that Kiyotaka had been meaning to read. "Think of it as an office-warming present. You... used to keep a book with you in your bag for the lunch break, but it seems like you don't read much anymore. You should make time for it! It's good for the brain."

"That's—" He took the book, genuinely touched and surprised, and flipped it over in his hands a few times. "...This is very nice of you, Fujisaki-chan. I'll be sure to read it."

Shortly after that, Chihiro left. It seemed that her main motivation for visiting had been delivering that present. Kiyotaka thought about the book the whole way home. Reading for pleasure, he'd already decided, would be his small rebellion. He'd always been a fast reader. He would need all the books he could get.

He let out a groan as he sat at his kitchen table. His joints creaked in protest. He was too young for this, wasn't he? He was sure he'd have to get his back looked at. If he found the time.

Kiyotaka picked up the book and opened it to its front cover. There, he found something scribbled in pencil. A name and a cell phone number. That jabbed at a wound in his heart that hadn't yet had time to heal. Even so, he pulled out his own phone and added in the new contact. He had a photograph to use as Chihiro's contact picture that he'd taken at an office party.

He didn't text her right away. He didn't mind being acquaintances, or even friends, with her, but he didn't want to come across as desperate. Instead he found himself lingering over a different recently-added contact number.

He clicked on it and opened up the window to send a text message. He tried to think of something casual to say, something informal but not too presumptuous.

How have you been?

I miss you.

My new job is going well.

I want to ride in your truck again.

Sonia says hello.

I want you to tease me more.

How is your brother?

I want to hear more of your advice.

I want to know more about you.

I want you to hold me.

I really, really miss you.

It seemed that he couldn't say one thing without saying the other. Anything less would feel like a lie. So he erased the string of messages and closed the window, setting his phone, useless, on the tabletop as he took a minute to collect himself.

He picked the phone back up and dialed a familiar number. He held his breath as it rang.

"...Hi, mom. ...I just wanted to let you and dad know that I moved into my new office today."